TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is Friday, Aug. 30, the 242nd day of 2013. There are 123 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Aug. 30, 1983, Guion S. Bluford Jr. became the first black American astronaut to travel in space as he blasted off aboard the Challenger.

On this date:

In 1861, Union Gen. John C. Fremont instituted martial law in Missouri and declared slaves there to be free. (However, Fremont’s emancipation order was countermanded by President Abraham Lincoln).

In 1862, Confederate forces won victories against the Union at the Second Battle of Bull Run in Manassas, Va., and the Battle of Richmond in Kentucky.

In 1905, Ty Cobb made his major-league debut as a player for the Detroit Tigers, hitting a double in his first at-bat in a game against the New York Highlanders. (The Tigers won, 5-3.)

In 1941, during World War II, German forces approaching Leningrad cut off the remaining rail line out of the city.

In 1945, Gen. Douglas MacArthur arrived in Japan to set up Allied occupation headquarters.

In 1963, the “Hot Line” communications link between Washington and Moscow went into operation.

In 1967, the Senate confirmed the appointment of Thurgood Marshall as the first black justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.

In 1986, Soviet authorities arrested Nicholas Daniloff, a correspondent for U.S. News and World Report, as a spy a week after American officials arrested Gennadiy Zakharov, a Soviet employee of the United Nations, on espionage charges in New York. (Both men were later released.)

In 1987, a redesigned space shuttle booster, created in the wake of the Challenger disaster, roared into life in its first full-scale test-firing near Brigham City, Utah.

In 1991, Azerbaijan declared its independence, joining the stampede of republics seeking to secede from the Soviet Union.

In 1993, “The Late Show with David Letterman” premiered on CBS-TV.

In 1997, Americans received word of the car crash in Paris that claimed the lives of Princess Diana, Dodi Fayed and their driver, Henri Paul. (Because of the time difference, it was Aug. 31 where the crash occurred.)

Ten years ago: A Russian submarine being towed to a scrap yard sank in a gale in the Barents Sea, killing nine of the 10-member crew. The World Trade Organization agreed to let impoverished nations import cheaper copies of patented medicines needed to fight killer diseases. Actor Charles Bronson, 81, died in Los Angeles. Inventor Robert Abplanalp, confidant of President Richard Nixon, died in Bronxville, N.Y., at age 81.

NEW YORK (AP) — Two kittens that briefly shut down New York City subway service have been found and rescued from the tracks.

Metropolitan Transportation Authority spokeswoman Julie Glave said the kittens were discovered Thursday evening under the third rail of an above-ground express track in Brooklyn. She said MTA workers and police officers removed the kittens in crates.